Quote:
Originally Posted by NYguy
The WTC is a target regardless. It just joins the ranks of other targets in New York and everywhere else. There's no way you can make something not a target.
As far as Chicago office space, I'm sure there'll be demand for more.
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There is certainly demand in Chicago for something like this, were new construction to be concentrated into fewer buildings - but it's not. Currently there is the ~60 story and ~900 foot 300 N. LaSalle and 353 N. Clark under construction (among others I'm forgetting I'm sure), and there's the proposed 200 N. Riverside (50 story building) that should start soon. In recent years there's been Hyatt Center, the new UBS building, 191 N. Wacker, 111 S. Wacker, Dearborn Center (it's named for Citadel now I think) and that other building across the street to the east of the Chase (formerly Bank One) building. The Blue Cross building is also expanding and adding 30 floors or so.
So there have been in the last 4 years or UC/proposed currently at least a dozen or so office towers in the 40-50 story range, which is more than any city outside NYC. If these had been combined with one another, there could have been 4 or 5 towers in the 80-100 story range. But it doesn't work that way, because there are different developers trying to get a piece of the action, more developable plots, and different land values which create a lower "optimal height" for maximizing profit.
The buildings in Chicago seem to naturally gravitate toward ~650 to ~750 feet in height, because that's how developers make the most money. In New York, it seems to be 100 - 150 feet higher than that. There's also the factor of the importance of this site and pressure from the city and public for something truly spectacular to replace the twin towers, which leads to higher buildings still. If this was just any plot of open land in the city, these buildings would be a bit shorter, albeit still very tall, like the NY Times buildings, Bloomberg tower, or the Hearst Building (I conciously left out the BOA building because BOA is a massive company that has a tendency to like to have one of the tallest buildings in the city wherever it is, but this isn't necessarily something that would repeat itself again and again... even JPM and Goldman Sachs aren't proposing towers that tall... BOA has a bit of a chip on its shoulder in many ways, being based in Charlotte and all).